Theatre and Culture from Scotland, starring The List's Theatre Editor, his performance persona and occasional guest stars. Experimental writings, cod-academic critiques and all his opinions, stolen or original.

Saturday, 7 November 2015

Will future generations mistake Kathy Hinde's Tipping Point for a religious ritual? Consisting of six pairs of glass vessels containing water, it generates sound from the rising and falling of the water in each vessel (using gravity and a mechanism that shifts water between each vessel in the pair).

Placed in a darkened room, during the long hours it stands as an installation, the mechanisms randomly adjust the water level: Hinde also performs on the machinery, demonstrating the tones and how they shift and twist. It produces a hushed, darkened atmosphere, an Orphic cave that encourages a reverential meditation on water.

The variation is in 6/8 meter, suggesting several possible Baroque
dances. In 1974, when scholars discovered Bach's own copy of the first
printing of the Goldberg Variations, they noted that over this variation Bach had added the heading al tempo di Giga.

But the implications of this discovery for modern performance have
turned out to be less clear than was at first assumed. In his book The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach[5]
the scholar and keyboardist David Schulenberg notes that the discovery
"surprised twentieth-century commentators who supposed gigues were
always fast and fleeting."

However, "despite the Italian terminology [giga],
this is a [less fleet] French gigue." Indeed, he notes, the dotted
rhythmic pattern of this variation (pictured) is very similar to that of
the gigue from Bach's second French suite and the gigue of the French Overture. This kind of gigue is known as a "Canary", based on the rhythm of a dance which originated from the Canary islands.

Bach rendered into Jazz evokes improvisation, technical virtuosity and style... does this come closer to the spirit of Goldberg Variatio 7 than any number of classical recordings? Certainly, this version brings me closer to restful ease than the challenge of listening to, say, the Glen Gould recording. Nice.

A time signature of 6/8 means count 6 eighth notes to each bar. This is also a very often-used time signature. You would count the beat: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and so on…

Now you will wonder why can’t you just reduce 6/8 to 3/4? After all,they add up to the same amount. One reason you might pick one time signature versus the other is how the music is organized. 6/8 is grouped into 2 groupsof 3 eighth notes. 3/4 time would be grouped into 3 groups of 2 eighthnotes. Depending on thestructure of the basslineor song, it may make sense to group it one way instead of the other. So6/8 feels more like two:3/4 feels more like three.

Absurd opinions, extended reviews, random press releases from The Arts, half baked ideas, unsuccessful experiments with the format of criticism. Brought to you by the host of The Vile Arts Radio Hour and former Theatre Editor of The Skinny, now working with The List